Google has unveiled a new streaming video gadget which will give users easier access to Internet content on their televisions - taking aim straight at Apple's attempt to move into the living room.

The new device, called Chromecast, is a small stick roughly the same size as a USB flash-storage drive that can be plugged directly into an HDMI port on flat-panel TVs.

It syncs with users' smartphones, tablets and personal computers to bring Netflix, YouTube and other Internet content to what is usually the biggest screen in households.

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Google's plan to take over the living room: A demonstration showing Google's new Chromecast device syncing between a television and a laptop running Google Chrome to show a video from the Vimeo website

The £30 Chromecast,which resembles a USB stick, pictured, is plugged directly into the HDMI port on modern TVs and streams content from the web, via peoples phones, tablets and laptops. This content is controlled via apps, and features content from the BBC, YouTube and Netflix

Google wants to have a presence on TVs because it could open up a lucrative new channel for it to sell more ads, which bring in most of its revenue.

In a show of its determination to make inroads on TVs, Google yesterday began selling Chromecast for just $35 (£22.85). That price undercuts the most popular Internet-streaming devices made by Apple and Roku.

Roku, a company that formed within Internet video subscription service Netflix, also sells an Internet streaming stick similar to Chromecast for $100 (£65).

Simplicity: In a move that has allowed Google to keep costs down, the hard work of processing video is done on a synced device, with Chromecast providing an easy interface to display the content on the big screen

Chromecast, which leans heavily in
Google's widely used Chrome Web Browser, is just the latest product from
the company intended to make inroads into the living room. Previous
offerings haven't worked out well.

The company initially tried to embed an operating system called Google TV into sets made by TV manufacturers, but that flopped.

Last
year, Google introduced an orb-like device called the Nexus Q in hopes
of delivering more Internet video to flat-panel TVs, only to quickly
pull the product from the market.

With the Chromecast, in
a move that has allowed Google to keep costs down, the hard work of
processing video is done on the synced device, with the stick merely
providing an easy interface to display the content on the big
screen.

The Apple and Roku
streaming boxes, by contrast, are standalone gadgets connected directly
to the Internet which rely on a standard remote control to select
content.

Chromecast shown controlled by a Google Nexus tablet: By offloading the hard work to a separate device,
Google has been able to keep costs down to a very competitive $35 (£22),
including three months of Netflix

More expensive: The Chromecast is competitively priced against the Roku box, left, which starts at around £50, and the Apple TV device, right, which usually also sells for around £50 (U.S. prices)

Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said Chromecast could undermine Apple in the still-nascent market to plug streaming devices into TVs, just as the Nexus tablets have siphoned some sales away from Apple's iPad.

'Chromecast looks like a smart and disruptive device'

Sarah Rotman Epps, analyst with Forrester Research

'Chromecast looks like a smart and disruptive device,' said Ms Rotman Epps. 'Maybe it took the other failures for Google to get it right.'

It faces stiff competition, but its comparatively reasonable price could see it come to dominate a rapidly growing market.

Earlier this year, Apple revealed that it has sold more than 13million of its streaming boxes. Roku said its sales of streaming boxes passed 5million units this year.

As an enticement to get people to try Chromecast, Google is offering three months of free Netflix service with a purchase of the Internet-streaming stick.

That translates to a $24 value, leaving the cost of the device at $11 for those who would have gotten Netflix anyway.